Four Germans were kidnapped in southern Egypt by an Egyptian tour guide seeking to use them as bargaining chips in a child custody battle with his estranged German wife, interior ministry sources said.

The sources told AFP the four were abducted on Monday evening and were still being held Tuesday afternoon in an apartment in the tourist city of Luxor, around 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Cairo.

Police initially told AFP the four had been freed unharmed in a village near Luxor, and police also described all four as being women.

However, the interior ministry sources in Egypt and the German foreign ministry in Berlin said all four were men – CAIRO (AFP)